ecotourism

The power of science has both helped and hindered us. In particular, the mechanistic model of the earth -body machine. Roger Bacon wished to conquer nature and Descarte’s mind body split is , perhaps unfairly, is used to justify seeing the world as something “other”, a Newtonian machine.

Thw problem is best majestically described by Charles Eisenstein:

Not only is the desacralization of the body and physicality a poison to the world, it is a profound untruth as well. For the body is not the house of the spirit, it is the spirit taken physical form. And the world, too, is not the creation of divinity, it is divinity as presented to our senses. At least, that is an essential premise of this book. Issues of nurturance, self-trust, and mindfulness, even in the “basely physical” realm of food, reverberate with spiritual significance. That is because life in the world is a sacred journey, and matters of the flesh are potential vehicles for spiritual transformation.

According to this premise, the health crisis engulfing the modern world is a spiritual crisis, and a precious opportunity as well. Pain and illness in the body can illuminate what is important in life, and help us perceive the preciousness of life itself. Pain and illness bring us back to ourselves. Poor health can also be a message on many levels that something is not right. From the perspective of mechanistic science, the body is a faulty machine that needs an expert to repair it, an attitude analogous to the technological fix that ecologists criticize as a response to environmental problems. But if body and soul are not separate, then to heal the body at the deepest level is a work of the soul, and to listen to and learn from the body is to become closer to one’s Self.– Charles Eisenstein The Yoga of Eating

Not specifically India, I found John Thackars recomendations – tourusm as a sharing experience, rather than as a destination – a useful way to see how tourists could be drawn to expeeirence and participate in Tribal Madhya Pradesh.